That just makes it more painful. It’s like the mechanic with a broken down car. Sad state of affairs.

Well, a pause or temporary setback does not mean failure, or the end. It just means that there’s a perfect opportunity to move forward and progress. To do better. The game is not over, I just have less points than the Resistance. It has scored. But I’m working on a comeback.

Also, just because a blog hasn’t been updated in a while doesn’t mean my life has stopped. In fact, I’m just starting a new big project that will be exciting, motivating, and entirely taxing, but it will be worth it. I haven’t decided whether to tell you about the details or not, so I’ll just tease for now.

Meanwhile, why don’t you go do something meaningful and tell me about it in the comments. It might help me out.

You want to create something meaningful. Something that will make a difference. Something that people will find valuable. But you just can’t seem to produce. You can’t seem to find the time, you can’t come up with the right concept, you don’t have the right skills, or a myriad of other reasons. You’re stuck in a rut.

‘The work’ in this case is overcoming the ‘Resistance’, a real internal force that keeps you from doing things that matter.

It’s easy to do all kinds of stuff that aren’t of much significance – watch TV, browse twitter or YouTube, play video games, or surf the web. But as soon as you want to do something worthwhile or that has meaning, the Resistance emerges to make it difficult. It’s a natural force of opposition that occurs in proportion to the amount of impact your creation can have if it exists. And sometimes the Resistance is so subtle that you hardly notice it.

That is when it is the most powerful.

You will be able to come up with very valid excuses for why you shouldn’t create that meaningful thing right now. Oh, you’re going to do it someday, it’s just not the right time right now. The Resistance doesn’t have to convince you that your idea is ridiculous, it only has to keep you from doing it for one more day. You see how powerful that is?

Once you are able to name it, and recognize its powerful tactics, you now have a chance to fight it.

So that is what Steven Pressfield has done for us. As a successful author experiencing all the usual ups and downs of an artist, he discovered this tangible force that would fight against his efforts. Then, he exposed all of the characteristics and qualities of this beast in his book The War of Art.

This book has motivated many artists to create, including Seth Godin, who said that it had the most significant impact on him than any other book. And it shows in the way Seth builds on the concept in his latest books, Linchpin and Poke the Box.

You too can get better acquainted with the Resistance, so you can fight it convincingly, by getting a free copy (until May 18th, 2011) of Steven’s latest book called Do The Work. It’s for the Kindle edition, which anyone can purchase and read on their smart phone or computer – you don’t need a Kindle.

The free-ness is due to Seth’s Domino Project and the sponsorship of GE (General Electric).